I bake, therefore I am

Bake off is back people! Now, like most of you I’m sure, I had my reservations. It’s a big change, Mel, Sue and Mar-Ber gone, surely it could only be a disaster. But I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t hate it, in fact I kinda liked it. I think my love for Noel helped this, I mean how can you not love him. He is adorable!

Back to the baking though, I mean that’s what you’re here for.

Cake week. What a way to start it off: fruity cakes, mini rolls (peppermint?!) and illusion cakes. What a way to kick it off, nothing like easing the contestants in gently. I love to bake. I enjoy playing about with new flavours and being challenged to create new things, but I couldn’t do any of that under the pressure that those baking babes face in that tent!read more

I hope you guys enjoy these puns, I wouldn’t like to admit how long they take me to come up with them. I cannot believe that we are coming to the end of April, this year is speeding by and we have been in our new home for 2 months now. In those two months I’ve taken 8 cake orders for family and friends and still managed to paint the living room and the kitchen, not bad round my 9-5.

This golf themed cake was a request that was absolutely loved by the birthday boy! This cake had some ups and downs, like most, but I particularly enjoyed spending my bank holiday creating this cake. Now spending your bank holiday inside baking, covering and modelling might sound like a chore to some, but to have an entire day to focus on something that I love, I couldn’t ask for more. Plus there was a Muppet movie marathon on the TV, perfect combination.read more

Big news! Kitchen Antics has moved its mess to a new kitchen. It’s all been a bit hectic these past couple of months and I’m just starting to find my feet but I’m back! You can call off the search parties, I’ve been in my flat unpacking boxes. Not as glamorous as I would have hoped, who knew I had so much stuff! J is not best pleased with the amount of cake stuff I have. Unfortunately I cannot repeat some of the comments he made about my cupcake boxes…

It hasn’t all been packing though these past few months. I’ve been very creative! I had the absolute honour of creating my friend’s wedding cake, complete with gold bow and snowflake cookies. I’ve created a gory brain cake for a Halloween dinner party. I made festive hampers for all my friends and family to enjoy. I’ve produced a James the Tank Engine cake for a very special first birthday. I constructed a New York themed birthday cake with a surprise centre. I fulfilled my annual duty by creating my sister’s birthday cake and I was trusted to make the cake for my Grandparent’s golden wedding anniversary.read more

After the dreaded dough experiences of last week I have to be honest when I say I was pretty excited when I found out they had added batter week into the mix!

What’s not to love about Yorkshire puddings, pancakes and Churros? I mean, can you get a better line up than that?! My love of batter did make it difficult to decide on what to make. Yorkshire puddings and a Sunday staple in my household, they’re big, beautiful and beastly. Pancakes in pretty patterns, how could I resist? Yet, in the end Churros won, I mean it had to!read more

Bread week. I’m going to be honest and this may shock you, with me being a baking fanatic and all, but I don’t actually eat bread. It’s not that I don’t like bread, it’s more that it doesn’t like me.

So you can guess my reluctance when it came to bread week. I favoured the savoury option this week and threw myself head first into a 3 flour, 3 filling plaited show stopper.

Apart from the technical challenge all the bakers in the tent have had time to practice their bakes. You can’t expect them to be able to go into that tent with all those cameras and create a master piece first time. It’s not going to happen. This is something I neglected to think about when it came to my baking. I attempted to make a spelt and pesto, rye and sundried tomato and a wholemeal olive monster plait, with no practice and a few bits of recipes here and there. As you can imagine this did not go to plan.read more

I remember Viennese whirls from when I was younger, now I’m not old, but these little beauties were always something my nan would produce when we attempted to raid her cupboards.

I was a bit nervous when my mum readily requested these little crumbling swirls after watching Bake off last week. I mean they don’t look easy do they? That swirl, the crumbly texture and uniformity. How was I going to recreate these?!

In reality they weren’t all that difficult. Word of advice before starting these though, make sure you set the oven to the right temperature. I’d never survive in that bake off tent. All the bunting and pretty coloured kitchen aids would go to my head and I’d forget to turn the oven on… Poor Mary Berry, I’d be feeding her raw cookie dough.read more

Mary and Paul are back, and I’m already running late. I’d be useless in the GBBO tent, all that stress and cameras. I think I’ll stick to my messy kitchen.

I love GBBO, I am a devout fan, much to the disgust of some members of my family. Every year I watch religiously and think why have I never made any of the wonderful things those lovely bakers slave over. I think about it, but that’s as far as I get. Next thing I know, Sue and Mel are back with the innuendos and I’ve made nothing.read more

I need to start this post with an apology. When it comes to updating this website I am truly rubbish! Can I make a mid year resolution (that’s a thing right?) and try my very hardest to update this more often. I really enjoy sharing all my food adventures with everyone but if someone can tell me where the time goes I’d really like to know. Can someone tell me how it is almost the end of JULY?

If you follow me on instagram (which you should, I upload some amazing food pics and the occasional selfie, sorry about that!) you would have seen my year in cake so far. I have been a busy baker. My evening and weekend hobby has really come along and I owe so much love to my friends and family for constantly challenging me. I can say that once I’ve completed the cake, those are not the words coming out of my mouth when I’m baking…read more

Oh Barcelona! 4 days just was not long enough. If you have been to Barcelona you’ll understand my longing to be back, we managed to do a lot, most of which seemed to be walking but we left so much untouched. We were lucky with the weather, it was bright and hot most days with a wind that managed to sneak up on you, but was most welcome.

Now I know this is a food blog so I don’t want to spend too much of my post bragging about my holiday, but if you ever get the chance to go to Barcelona just go! Right, now to the food. Obviously it is Spain so we ate all of the food you would typically expect. We had tapas, paella and more sangria than I care to remember!read more

I have to confess, I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to updating this! It’s a mixture of reasons: time, lack of inspiration and worrying that I’ve got nothing worth while to say. The last one is probably my biggest problem, I mean why would people want to read about what I’ve been doing in the kitchen? Yet people keep asking me for cakes so I must be doing something right?

The past four months have gone pretty quickly, I’m sure everyone could say the same, but honestly where did they go? I’m going to have to start planning my Christmas cake soon. Sorry is it too early to mention the “Christmas” word, pretend I didn’t say anything… Want to look at some pretty cakes instead? Brilliant idea…read more